It has been a strange couple of days.  I know that Les is not our responsibility but he is a nice, harmless guy and he didn't ask to be in this situation and he is isolated and on his own and struggling.  He rang me this morning to say that he was able to come home and so John shot off down to the General Hospital to pick him up.  I put together a Red Cross food parcel for both Les and his adopted cat Molly so that he doesn't have to worry about food today.  It never occurred to me that whilst he has limited access to his home due to the road works he is unable to carry loads of shopping up the hill from where he parks - hence we couldn't find more than one spare tin of cat food.

Mum came for lunch today (it is Sunday) and she is in training for Christmas with a glass of vino - actually it is my glass - she doesn't really like the taste of alcohol any more so generally drinks water or weak black tea - we would dearly love to find some little tipple we can ply her with over the festive period but have so far drawn a blank.

Anyway today I earned more than my fair share of Brownie points because I did her favourite Hunters Chicken which I served with Cypriot roast potatoes, roasted carrots and peas with some extra sauce so it wasn't a dry meal and I have to say, even though I cooked it myself , it was a triumph.

The weather has started to cool so we ate indoors today - we had planned to be outside but the wind got up and I knew that our food would get cold quickly.

I had been for a swim this morning whilst John was off picking up Les and the water was lovely.  I shall try and continue to do it for as long as possible.

To give you some idea of just how lovely November can be, take a look at the sky - not a cloud to be seen and my bougainvillea is still looking fabulous.  The weather forecast for later in the coming week is rain - we aren't really bothered but we do have a couple of jobs which we want to get sorted beforehand so plan to get up early tomorrow to get a couple done before I go to the dentist.

My Hunter's Chicken was followed by a lime, coconut and ginger panna cotta served with some mango slices and a topping of crushed pistachio nuts.  Just a little serving as I know that Mum needs to keep an eye on her sugar.  It went down very well which was good.  In fact it was super good to see Mum eat and enjoy and to give her a meal to take home for tomorrow.

We popped round to catch up with Lakis and Argy and to watch a fairly abject performance by Manchester United.  They are a little stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea as the UK is being plunged into a month long lockdown and they have booked to return home in three weeks' time but don't know at this stage if this is actually going to happen.  They say they are prepared but we are worried that they have not, as yet, really endured a Droushia Winter which can be quite unforgiving.

We returned home reasonably early but both John and I were feeling absolutely knackered.  We have been concerned about Les and are quite unfamiliar about the whole medical system here not having had to use it much thankfully.

Our cats were all in on our return which is always a comfort and we were happy to retire early and hopefully get a good nights sleep as we have an early morning planned and a date with a paintbrush as there is a small area of plinth around the walls of the house that need painting and waterproofing.